Curlew Sandpiper

Curlew Sandpiper (Image ID 49644)
Photographed byMichael Hamel-Green on Mon 3rd Jan, 2022 and uploaded on Thu 6th Jan, 2022 .
Resolution1800x1031
Viewed456
ID49644
CommentThis Curlew Sandpiper, another of our migrant visitors returning from a 12,000m flight from their Siberian breeding grounds, was one of some thousands of shorebirds feeding on mudflats and in shallow waters at Werribee as the tide receded. This one looks like it has least regained some weight after its epic flight. It is dressed in its grey and white non-breeding plumage rather than its recent spectacular chestnut breeding colours. I only sighted a few amongst the mainly Red-necked Stint and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper shorebird mix at Werribee. As the Australian Bird Guide notes: “It was formerly one of our most common shorebirds, but has declined sharply since the 1980s”. In Victoria, it is listed as “endangered” on the 2013 Advisory List of Threatened Vertebrate Fauna in Victoria. It is also endangered in NSW, and vulnerable in WA and NT. The current Datazone.birdlife.org Factsheet on Curlew Sandpipers indicates that “the population using the East Asian-Australasian Flyway is thought to be experiencing severe declines due to habitat loss in the Yellow Sea” (http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/22693431). Perhaps I was privileged to see even this one before the last migrating Curlew Sandpiper makes shore in Australia. Such is the legacy we are passing on to our children and successive generations. A diminished natural world where species after species is no longer to be seen in the wild. Just stuffed birds in a musty museum, or our own sad memorialising images to be viewed on the Birdlife Photography website.
EquipmentNikon Z7ii, Nikon 500mm PF f5.6 TC1.4
700mm
ISO 1600
1/1600th f11
LocationWerribee Treatment Plant, Werribee, Victoria
Keywordsadult, non-breeding plumage/colours
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